Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. The compressor compresses air drawn into the engine and delivers high pressure air to the combustor. In the combustor, fuel is mixed with the high pressure air and the air/fuel mixture is ignited. Products of the combustion reaction in the combustor are directed into the turbine where work is extracted to drive various components of the gas turbine engine.
Turbines typically include alternating stages of static vane assemblies and rotatable wheel assemblies. The rotatable wheel assemblies include disks carrying blades that are coupled to the disks. When the rotatable wheel assemblies turn in response to receiving the combustion reaction products, tips of the blades move along ceramic blade tracks included in static turbine shrouds surrounding the rotating wheel assemblies. Consequently, work is extracted in the form of mechanical energy.
Components of some static turbine shrouds may be segmented and arranged to form rings around a central axis. Thermal expansion and contraction of such segmented components may differ from the thermal expansion and contraction of non-segmented components that the static turbine shroud components interface with during operation of the turbines. Managing the thermal expansion and contraction of segmented components of static turbine shrouds relative to the thermal expansion and contraction of such non-segmented components remains an area of interest.